I Think I am a Unicorn

Here’s another TED talk (albeit an old one) that I’d like to share thanks to Ms. Geshke. Shawn Achor discusses how in our society today, we are led to believe that happiness depends on our successes when it should be the other way around. The problem with attributing happiness to one’s success is that once you reach a goal whether that be earning a grade in class, getting accepted into a school or achieving a sales target, those goal posts are moved again so actually you feel like you haven’t succeeded at all yet. I found this point interesting since my conception was simply that many people are unhappy because they feel like they don’t have enough in life, that they want more.

Instead we should focus on being positive in the present. Once we have that happiness advantage our brains work more intelligently, creatively and resiliently which in turn will lead to success. I would have liked to hear a more in depth discussion about the research findings (the majority of Shawn’s talk was anecdotes), but I still enjoyed his witty talk. He also mentioned simple things that if done on a regular basis, would have a huge impact on one’s well-being and happiness: